High Altitude Sweet Potato Maple Crumb Muffins

The fluffiest, moistest high altitude sweet potato muffins with warm fall spices, topped with buttery brown sugar pecan crumble, and a drizzle of sweet maple icing. If sweet potato casserole with brown sugar crumb topping is your favorite dish at Thanksgiving, you’ll fall in love with these delicious fall muffins. They’re so fluffy, soft and tender, with heaps of crumb topping, and the most wonderful flavor from the maple extract in the icing.

Looking for more high altitude muffin recipes? Don’t miss these apple spice crumb muffins, almond poppy seed muffins, classic blueberry muffins, and lemon cream cheese muffins.

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Why You’ll Love These Muffins

These muffins are basically like getting to eat sweet potato casserole for breakfast! The flavors of the roasted sweet potato, cozy spices and maple icing, and the soft, tender muffins with the crumbly streusel topping is just the best.

The way to get a really sweet, concentrated flavor in the cooked sweet potatoes is to bake or roast them whole in their skin.  I like to drizzle each potato with about a teaspoon of olive oil, wrap them individually in foil, and then roast on a baking sheet for 1 1/2 hours at 425 degrees F.  They have an almost caramelized flavor after roasting, and when cool enough, the peel just slips right off.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Muffins

• Sweet Potatoes. Roasted in their peel, sweet potatoes become soft, melt-in-your-mouth tender, with a sweet, caramelized flavor that’s wonderful in these muffins.
• Sugar. Dark brown sugar and granulated sugar adds sweetness and moisture.
• Vegetable Oil + Whole Milk. Moisture.
• Eggs. Add structure to the muffins.
• Vanilla + Maple Extracts. Flavor.
• Flour. All-purpose flour gives the muffins structure and strength.
• Baking Soda. Leavens the batter so the muffins rise as they bake.
• Salt. I use coarse Kosher salt in all my baking, to enhance the flavors and balance the sweetness.
• Spices. A blend of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom adds warmth and depth of flavor.

Topping

For the topping, a simple mixture of all-purpose flour, dark brown sugar, salt, chopped pecans (optional), and butter to bring it all together is all you need for a delicious streusel.

Icing

You don’t have to add the icing, but the muffins are SO GOOD with it. Powdered sugar, maple extract, salt and milk make sweet, flavorful icing to complement the flavor of the roasted sweet potatoes.

Instructions

Roast the sweet potato.

• Preheat the oven to 425 F. Scrub the sweet potato, but don’t remove the peel. Wrap it in foil, place it on a baking sheet, and roast for about 1 1/2 hours, until very soft.
• Open the foil, let the potato cool, and remove the peel. Puree the potato in a food processor until smooth. Measure out 1 cup of pureed sweet potato, and let cool to room temperature.
• You can roast and puree the sweet potato up to 3 days in advance, keeping it in the refrigerator until needed. You can also freeze the puree for 3-6 months.

TIP: It’s far preferable to puree the sweet potatoes smooth in a food processor, rather than hand-mashing them.  Some sweet potatoes seem to be more stringy than others, and pureeing them gets rid of all those unpleasant fibers which hand-mashing can leave behind.

Make the muffin batter.

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and line a standard muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Lightly spray the liners and the top of the pan with nonstick baking spray.
• In a bowl, whisk together the pureed sweet potato, granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, milk, eggs, vanilla and maple extracts.
• Separately, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and use a fork to whisk everything together, just until moistened.
• Spoon the batter into the cups; they’ll be quite full, nearly to the top.

Sprinkle with crumb topping.

• In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar salt and pecans. Drizzle with the melted butter, and toss everything together with a spoon until evenly moistened.
• Spoon the crumbs on top of the batter, using up all the crumbs. Lightly press the crumbs into the batter.

Bake.

• Bake the muffins on the center oven rack for about 22-25 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool in the pan for several minutes, then gently lift them out to cool on a cooling rack while you make the icing.

Drizzle with icing.

• In a bowl, whisk together all ingredients until thick and smooth.
• Drizzle the icing over the warm muffins. It will set in about 15-20 minutes.
• Enjoy the muffins warm or at room temperature.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

Will canned pumpkin work instead of the pureed sweet potato?

Yes, canned pumpkin puree is pretty much interchangeable with pureed, roasted sweet potatoes in recipes.

Can I boil the sweet potato instead of roasting it?

Boiling the sweet potato will work, too, although roasting concentrates the flavor better.

Can I use pumpkin pie spice instead of the spices listed in the recipe?

Of course.

What can I replace the eggs with?

While I haven’t personally tested it, you could try 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce to replace each egg.

Will any type of milk work?

Whole, low-fat, skim and non-dairy milks are all fine.

Can I use melted butter instead of oil in the muffin batter?

Sure! Melted butter adds great flavor, although it tends to make baked goods a little more dense, while oil keeps them moist, light and fluffy.

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